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On 18 November 2011, a small group of students demonstrating against tuition increases at UC Davis linked arms and sat down on the university quad. Soon after, campus police in riot gear coated them with pepper spray.

In fact, this was not the first police assault on UC tuition protesters. The demonstrations in Davis were inspired in part by those held in Berkeley on 9 November, where sheriff’s deputies attacked and beat students and faculty, among them Robert Hass, former Poet Laureate of the United States.

Video of these incidents inspired global outrage. Thus, authorities hoping to terminate the demonstrations inadvertently rallied faculty, staff, and students to the cause, at least temporarily.Read more…